For the 2016-2017 academic school year, tuition for full-time undergraduate MU students will increase 4.95 percent. This increase now makes the total cost for tuition and fees, excluding room and board, $35,014. Tara Peters, Associate Vice President of the Marketing and Communications Department said, “Even with this year’s increase, Monmouth’s tuition remains in the lower half among private colleges and universities in New Jersey, meaning that more than half of the private colleges and universities in the state have higher tuition costs.”

Monmouth University’s financial aid department could not be reached for comment.

According to CollegeCalc, a website that ranks schools in order based off of their current tuition reported by the U.S. Department of Education, the University lands in 9th most expensive colleges in New Jersey by in state tuition. Based off of the tuition of the 2014/2015 school year, it fell under schools such as Seton Hall and Drew University, whose tuition was $44,232 that year.

One of the main investments with the tuition raise is an increase in full time faculty and staff. Peters explained, “For 2016-17 we are adding 22 new full-time faculty positions and nine support staff positions to enhance student learning.” In addition, the University has also created several senior administrative positions. According to the University website, over the last two years there have been more than 50 new tenure-track and full-time positions, with the support of two new deans.

University Professor Among Speakers for TEDxNavesink Talk on Campus

A TEDxNavesink event sold out Pollak Theater at Monmouth University on April 9.

TEDxNavesink is similar to other organizations with the label TED (which is an acronym for Technology, Education and Design) in that speakers take the stage and talk about ‘ideas worth spreading.’ As the largest TEDx event on the East coast, this year’s TEDxNavesink theme of ‘Makers’ attracted CEOs, renowned artists, Grammy Award winners and even just everyday people to tell their profound stories.

Perth Amboy native, Stephanie Eichmeyer, who is a Monmouth alumnus and TEDxNavesink’s Communication Team Leader, said, “TEDxNavesink is an event full of talks by society’s greatest thought leaders, but it’s so much more than that. TEDxNavesink is a challenging, thrilling and rewarding experience for everyone involved.”

Students Advocating Girls’ Education (SAGE) hosted their annual Women’s Retreat that brought together many young women of Monmouth on Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2016. From Zumba to henna, SAGE incorporated bits and pieces of culture from around the world in Anacon.

SAGE is a student run organization that was founded two years ago. The club was established in the fall of 2014 by president Jamilah McMillan and vice president Janaya Lewinski. The club host’s events and campaigns that protect women and girls’ international rights to education and gender equality.

The Women’s Retreat was broken up into stations. There was an Insecurity Wall station, a makeup guru station, a henna station, a Mean Girls station, and a Zumba station.

There were some stations that highlighted internal struggles that women face on a global level. The Insecurity Wall, for example, was a station in which young women wrote an insecurity and taped it up on the wall. At the end of the night, when all the insecurities were up, all the participants were able to realize that insecurities have no identity, as many of them were recurring.

Springfest, featuring We The Kings, will commence on Shadow Lawn on Sunday, April 24 from 12 to 5 p.m.

Springfest is an annual event hosted by the Student Government Association (SGA) that has been a staple of the University academic year for many decades. “I really love how Springfest brings everyone together at the end of the year for one big celebration. People from all over campus stop focusing on finals for one afternoon to hang out and spend time together, which I think is a great tradition,” said Brianna Merriman, a junior communication student.

This year, the American rock-band We the Kingswill be performing at Springfest. In 2007, their self-titled debut album We The Kings sold over 250,000 copies nationwide. The album included their platinum single “Check Yes Juliet.” Last year, the band released their fifth album Strange Love.

Every year, Springfest has a theme. “This year’s Springfest is themed Hawaii Luau. There will be a fire knife performance and Hawaiian Luau dancers,” said Vaughn Clay, the Director of the Office of Off-Campus and Commuter Services and the advisor for SGA.

The male students of Monmouth University slipped into high heels to bring awareness to sexual assault and gender violence for the annual “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” march on Wednesday, Apr. 13.

Over 200 walked to support the international event, which occured during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Mark Holfelder, Associate Director of Residential Life, said, “The whole purpose of ‘Walk a Mile’ is to get gentlemen to don women’s shoes and walk. It gives men the chance to put themselves in a women’s place.”

“Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” was coordinated by Counseling and Psychological Services and Residential Life, and received partnership by 180 Turning Lives Around (a non-profit organization dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence), the Office of Equity and Diversity, MU Athletics, and Greek Life.

The event was created by Frank Baird in 2001 with just a group of men marching around a park. Now, colleges around the world take part in bringing awareness to sexual assault and violence against women.

Thomas McCarthy, Assistant Director of Counseling and Psychological Services, said, “The event has remained an important part of the spring semester at Monmouth for the last 10 years. It’s important we have events like this.”

McCarthy feels the event’s longevity is due to its relevance and its impact. He said, “It’s an issue in society, it’s an issue on campuses, and it’s serious enough that we want to constantly bring awareness to it.”

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes began with opening remarks by speaker Tina Morgan, Assistant Coordinator for Victim Support Program of 180 Turning Lives Around.

The University’s first ever Scholarship Week is a week-long conference designed to showcase and celebrate the academic achievements of students both inside and outside of the classroom. Scholarship Week began Monday April 18 and will run until April 24.

Scholarship Week is an idea that came out of the strategic planning process. The main goal of the week is to give students and faculty the opportunity to see the variety of projects being organized all over campus.

“There are a number of departments and schools on campus that have students undertaking research projects or other creative projects like the annual Art and Design student show or presentations from the Music and Theatre Arts students,” said Dr. Robin Mama, Dean of the School of Social Work who helped plan Scholarship Week. “Many people thought that it was time that we showcased this wonderful work in one week, both for all of us and for the community.”

Events will be occurring throughout the week all over campus and vary from school to school. These events include highlighting students’ scholarly contributions in research, writing, service learning, musical and theater productions, art exhibits, and more. One of the most prominent events will feature Keynote Speaker, Elizabeth Ambos, the Director of the Council on Undergraduate Research in Washington D.C., taking place on April 22 in the Young Auditorium in Bey Hall. The title of her speech is “Opening the Door: The Long Term Benefits of Undergraduate Research” and RSVP is required to attend.

Erin Hughes, a senior psychology student, is involved with Scholarship Week and will be presenting her thesis at the social sciences symposium and she looks forward to sharing her research. “I am very involved in my major and the research being done in the department. I hope to get to see what other majors are doing and how that has influenced them. I think this week will give us the opportunity to see across schools what students are involved in,” said Hughes.

Monmouth University Career Services held its largest Spring Career Day in the University’s history, with 130 employers in attendance on Wednesday, Apr. 6.

This year, over 350 students attended the event held in the Multipurpose Activity Center (MAC) in hopes of gaining a job, an internship, or new network connection. Some employers included Microsoft, the IRS, Wegmans Food Markets, Asbury Park Press and USA TODAY Network, Novo Nordisk Inc., iCIMS, Daiwa Capital Markets, Vanguard, and the FBI.

There were a few firsts at this year’s Spring Career Day. Employers took advantage of the MAC’s jumbotron in order to advertise their corporate logos. Jeff Mass, Assistant Director of Career Services, said, “This is a great way for employers to build their brand to MU students.”

Additionally, the University used electronic scanners for the first time to keep track of the number of students who came to the event.

Mass is responsible for planning both the Fall and Spring Career Days on campus. He feels events like Career Day are an essential step a student seeking a job should take.

Questions About Title IX, Wilson Hall Controversy and the Strategic Plan Answered

With many changes to the University in this past academic year alone, President Paul Brown has had a lot on his plate. The Outlook had the chance to sit down with him and talk about his past and how it affected his decisions at the University this year.

What was your childhood like?

I grew up in Lancaster, PA on a farm that was right in the middle of Amish Country. My family had been there for generations. I had a very simple upbringing. The schools that I went to had about 10 or 12 students in a class. It was rural, but I loved it. I had three older brothers and they showed me the ropes. It was fun being the youngest.

My parents were pretty stern. They were loving but they were stern. My father worked for the state of PA as a farm inspector. I would go with him sometimes when he worked and I would see how he was good, but stern particularly in that type of role as an inspector.

My embracement of diversity came from my mother. We lived in an area that was very insular; all white, methodist, and catholicism was a big deal. I loved that, but my mother would make sure that we had chances to get out of that environment. She would take us on trips to purposely have us out of Lancaster county. She was very accepting. I know that it was because she came from an incredibly stern family, and she reacted to that.

Hawk TV celebrated its 20th anniversary in the lobby of the Jules L. Plangere Center for Communication by hosting a reunion of many of its past members on Friday, Apr. 8.

The event lasted from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and included activities such as a highlight reel of the last 20 years, speeches, and an in-studio gameshow that pitted current students against alumni. There was also a gift auction, the proceeds of which went towards Relay for Life. In total, there were about 100 people in attendance.

Many of the founding members were in attendance according to Donna Dolphin, an associate professor of communication and an advisor to Hawk TV. “One of those folks is a Vice President at Nickelodeon and now a member of the MU Board of Trustees.”

“We wanted to celebrate the 20 years that Hawk TV has been on air,” said Samantha Savona, a senior communication student and the station manager of Hawk TV. “This party was an opportunity to bring all generations together. We all shared something in common and that was our love and passion for Hawk TV. A lot of alumni discussed how nothing in their current careers would be possible without the learning experience that they first gained at this student-run television station.”

According to Alexa Burger, the promotions director of Hawk TV, one of the goals of the event was to reunite all of the past members of the organization.

“The biggest challenge of this event was to try and reach out to every past member of Hawk TV,” said Burger. “We do not have an event like this every year, but since we have reached the 20-year mark it was essential to try and bring everyone back to celebrate this amazing organization.”

“I thought it was a great event,” said Marissa Cornford, a communication student who produces both Hawk TV News and The Save Point. “It’s amazing to see how Hawk TV has been around for 20 years and that the celebration took place while I’m a student now. It was a lot of fun, socializing and catching up… For me it was exciting to see people who graduated again, as well as meet people who didn’t go to Monmouth at the same time as me, but produced/worked on the show that I had taken over.”

With hopes to feed the hungry and reduce campus food waste, the Food Recovery Network collects leftover food items and distributes them to those in need.

The Food Recovery Network is a non-profit organization that aims to decrease food waste on college campuses by collecting uneaten food from dining halls that would typically be discarded and donating it to nearby food pantries and soup kitchens.

Essentially, after the campus has finished serving food to students, members of the Food Recovery Network will work to package all of the leftover food that would otherwise be thrown away. Then, the food is brought to churches and kitchens that provide food for those in need. Therefore, less food is wasted and more people are fed.

Nationwide, the organization has almost 200 chapters and has successfully collected over one million pounds of food for donation since 2011. MU’s chapter is now officially recognized by the organization and is only the second school in New Jersey to become an official chapter.

In 2011, University of Maryland students Ben Simon, Mia Zavalij and Cam Pascual, realized that quality food from their dining hall was being thrown in the trash. Taking action, the students organized the first chapter of the Food Recovery Network, and by the end of the school year, they had recovered 30,000 meals overall.

The Department of World Languages and Cultures and The Italian Club at Monmouth University held their annual “La Festa Italiana” or “Italian Festival” in the Wilson Hall Auditorium on Tuesday, Apr. 5. The event celebrated various aspects of Italian culture, such as food, music, poetry, and more.

The festival was attended by various language professors, students enrolled in the language classes at the university, and even some students from the neighboring Long Branch High School. It was hosted and overseen by Dr. Maria Simonelli. Simonelli, who began La Festa Italiana around ten years ago, is not only a professor of Italian and Latin at the university, but is also the Department Coordinator of the Italian Program and the advisor to the Italian Club.

“Signora Simonelli is an amazing professor and a genuinely caring person,” said freshman elementary education and history student Samantha Papa, who is also currently enrolled in Simonelli’s Italian 202 class and an active member of the Italian Club. “She lights up every room, and I wouldn’t have wanted to work with anyone else but her.”

Dr. Priscilla Gac-Artigas, a professor of Spanish for 20 years at Monmouth and the former chair of the World Languages and Cultures Department, shares a similar sentiment: “I believe that if someone needs to get credit for the success of the event, it is Professor Simonelli,” said Gac-Artigas. “Since she has been at Monmouth she has been an inspiration to all her students. Her passion for teaching and dedication to her students has been inspirational to her colleagues as well. The Italian program exists basically thanks to her hard work, and also to our present chair, Dr. Barrea-Marlys.”